Fresh Backing for Environmental Convention Adoption in Southeast Asia

A new IMO-Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad) environmental project in Southeast Asia is set to begin that will support seven countries in protecting their marine environment. 

The four-year project will focus on enhancing the countries’ capacity to implement a number of high-priority marine environment conventions, including the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL); the Anti-Fouling Systems Convention; the London dumping of wastes convention and protocol and the Ballast Water Management Convention. 

IMO and Norad signed an agreement on December 8 to support the new major project titled “Marine Environment Protection for Southeast Asia Seas (MEPSEAS).” Under the agreement, Norad will make available some $2 million to IMO’s Integrated Technical Cooperation Programme. The seven ASEAN countries involved will be Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.

The project will build on a previous IMO-Norad project which directly led to six of the seven countries concerned (Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam) making substantial progress in terms of implementation and/or ratification of IMO environmental treaties. For countries which have acceded to the relevant treaties, the new MEPSEAS project will allow them to focus on effective implementation.